She’d been on a date with the sexiest shifter in the universe, and she’d passed out after two drinks. She was going to die an old maid. A born again virgin.
And damn it, she’d blown any chance of getting donations for the rec center. She should have tried to channel her inner vamp and be charming, for once in her life.
“Who am I kidding?” she muttered to herself as she headed for the door. “I have no inner vamp. I have a giant man-repelling ray gun.”
Well, there was no point in wallowing. Maybe Ryker would at least pretend to be mated to her for the next few weeks, and she’d still get the donation.
All she could do was move forward. She had to hurry – she needed to get home and change, because there was no way she was going to school in this outfit. The other teachers would be at the playground soon for volunteer cleanup day. She didn’t want to leave them doing all the work.
The pounding on the door grew louder.
Exasperated, she stalked over and flung the door open, and a reporter stumbled back and then quickly began taking pictures. There was a crowd of reporters clustered around, standing on Ryker’s lawn, cameras aimed at her.
She spun around and grabbed the door, trying to go back into the house, but it had locked behind her.
Flashbulbs popped in her face, and she flinched and fell back.
She glanced down at herself and realized she was wearing her jacket inside out. She looked in the reflective glass of the windows and flinched. Hair standing straight up, makeup smeared – this was the ultimate walk of shame. The walk to end all walks.
And the worst part?
She hadn’t even done anything to be ashamed of. Now, that totally sucked.
And, she remembered, her car wasn’t here; it would still be back at the restaurant. She needed a ride to her car.
She pulled her cell phone from her clutch and quickly called Larissa and told her where she was.
“I’ll be there in ten minutes,” Larissa said. “But you have to tell me all the dirty deets.”
Daisy sat down on the front steps, ignoring the questions that the reporters shouted at her, and waited for Larissa to get there.
A few minutes later, Larissa came racing up the block and pulled to a halt in front of Ryker’s house. As Daisy hurried towards her car, one of the photographers got in front of her and blocked her path. “So, you’re clearly not Ryker’s usual type,” he sneered.
She tried to step around him. He moved to block her. She stepped the other way. He moved again to block her and shoved the camera in her face and took a picture, and the bulb went off, nearly blinding her.
Now she’d had it. She believed in the freedom of the press as much as the next person – but this reporter was crossing the line into assault when he prevented her from leaving.
She put her hands on his chest and pushed so hard that he flew backwards into the bushes, squawking and waving his arms in outrage. Of course, the cameras went crazy.
Now she’d totally blown any chance of impressing Ryker’s investors. They wanted to see him dating someone respectable and classy? Clearly not her.
First the horrible walk of shame with the inside-out jacket, morning-after makeup and hell hair, and then she’d assaulted someone in front of a dozen other reporters.
There was no way that Ryker would want to see her again. Realizing that sent a sharp jab of pain and disappointment lancing through her. Why should it matter? They would only have been together for a couple of weeks anyway.
Now reporters were crowding onto the pathway, blocking her from getting to Larissa.
“Move it!” she yelled.
Larissa drove past the reporters up onto the lawn, through a hedge, over a flowerbed, and pulled up next to Daisy.
Daisy had forgotten – there was a reason Larissa got so many traffic tickets. Come to think of it, she probably wasn’t supposed to be driving at all.
Well, that’s the cherry on the sundae, Daisy thought ruefully as she scrambled into the car. Ryker’s probably going to move and go into witness protection to get away from me.
As Larissa drove off over what was left of Ryker’s flowerbeds, Wynona called her on her cell phone.
“Hello, I’m not dead,” Daisy said.
“What was I thinking, opening a mating agency?” Wynona moaned. “All my mating mojo has left me. I set you up with the biggest jerk in the world. I wonder if the bank would take me back.”
“Don’t do it! You hated working at the bank. And don’t worry about the date,” Daisy said. “It was…unique. It wasn’t all bad. Look, let me call you back later, and don’t do anything rash.” She hung up the phone.
“Tell me what happened!” Larissa demanded, pouting. She tended to act like a sulky middle-schooler if she didn’t get all the details of Daisy’s romantic life.